You're Not Better
by Nina of the Galaxy
Summary: A rewrite of the hallway scene between Oliver and Laurel, where they both act a little differently.


Words: 1449  
Pairing: Oliver/Laurel (technically)  
Status: Done  
Genre: Hurt/Comfort  
Summary: A rewrite of the hallway scene between Oliver and Laurel, where they both act a little differently.

That was it. She was fucking done with all of them. None of them really cared. They all claimed too, but none of them really did. Her mother left her. Her father left her. Her sister. Ollie. Tommy. Everyone left her and they would always freaking leave her, because everyone leaves Laurel Lance to deal with the world on her own. She finally realized that she didn't have to take the abuse and she didn't have to care about all of them, if they wanted to be the happy family they alway were, then let them, but they were going to do it without her.

Her purse, jacket, and shoes and then she slammed the door. It felt good to slam things, ended it on a note of finality and she just rushed forward, not really knowing where she was going, but knowing what she was running from was a start. If she didn't have a place, well, then she was just going to take her wherever there was peace and quiet, because right now it was just voices telling her she hadn't done enough to save them.

Oliver opened the door right after her, clearly Laurel was on a tornado's path and she was going to burst from all the pent up energy, but she couldn't keep running away from it. She needed to deal with it. Maybe violently, but definitely needed to stop running away and so he followed her, because that's what he did. Truth was, he was tired of it. He wanted her to be better and she clearly wasn't. "Hey!"

She turned around and he could see the fury in her snarl, in her eye, hell, even in her hair. "You are unbelievable. You lecture me on how I need to repair my relationship with Sara when you're the one who messed up in the first place. By SCREWING her. And now you're doing it again." Sara, he knew that Sara was a low point with them.

"You're right. This is all my fault—" He took the blame. He was the one convinced to come here with Sara, even when he knew that would be stupid to do to Laurel.

She was only too glad to give it to him. She relished in giving him that amount of blame, because it was violent and stupid. She hated that he fell into old habits so easily. He deserved it. He wanted to make it all about Sara, well, then that was the fight he was going to get. "Yeah, yeah, yes it is."

"And is you losing your job, doing drugs, and being a drunk, is that my fault? Is that your family's fault? Or…or are you gonna blame Tommy for dying?" He probed. He wasn't going to let her play the victim in all of this. She made choices which had consequences. She was wrong. More wrong than she thought

"You don't get to talk about Tommy's death. You know why?" She asked, voice laced with malice, "Because when he died, you left. You left me alone. For five months, I had to rebuild my life. And I had to rebuild the lives of others. Without you. I had no one. I made sure Thea was okay. It's not Tommy's fault for dying. I don't blame him for dying. I blame myself for killing him. He was there to save me. His death is on me. He has a tombstone because I wanted to help. I carry it with me everyday and if you want to punish me for breaking, go ahead. But don't for one second think you're better than me."

"Laur-" He said, because it hurt to see her with tears in her eyes, but he couldn't let her just bury it underneath all that guilt, otherwise she would never get better. "I have stood by you, through everything, the DUI, losing your job, Laurel, I was concerned for your wellbeing when you were trying to get my mother the death penalty…"

"Yeah, and you've been a real stand up kind of guy," Laurel scoffed at him. Oliver could be so full of himself. "I tried my best to get your mother to take plea deals. You were the one who said she shouldn't take it. But you know, I'm obviously the bad guy. Because I put the needs of the many abouve the needs of the few. If it had been up to me, I wouldn't have even had her on trial, but again everything is Laurel's fault. Just like it was my fault in there. Because you and my father and my mother all love Sara more than me. Everyone loves Sara more than me. Everyone wished that she had stayed alive and I died. What happens to me now?"

This was Laurel. Her insecurity. Sara was the more beautiful one. Sara was the popular one with the boys. Sara was sexy. And Laurel was the practical one. She picked up the pieces. She saw the good in people even though they didn't deserve. She loved deeply and hard and he knew that this was heartbreak. It was also a breakthrough. "Laurel, nothing happens to you. Just because Sara lives, doesn't mean you have to die. You're not the only one with family problems you know. I know…it's hard for you. Sara's getting so much attention. And you have been through a lot, but you are not the only one going through this. It doesn't just hurt you. It hurts everyone."

"Are you done?" She asked him, because she didn't want to be in this anymore. She thought about what he said. It sure as hell didn't look like it was hurting everyone else, but he wanted to make that accusation and she was just so tired of fighting it. She was the person the world shit upon and that was always gonna be the way it was, good dependable Laurel was good and dependable for a whipping boy and she always wanted to help so she let it happen to her.

"Yeah. Yeah, I'm done. I'm done taking the blame. You keep blaming everyone but yourself. I have loved you for half my life. I came back for you, Laurel. But I cannot stand aside passively and watch you purposely destroy yourself because you think you deserve it. You don't. You need to let everyone else, be everyone else. You don't have to take on the world. You don't have take on everyone's pain as your own. You don't have to take on the world, you can just be Laurel. You can be the amazing girl I know you can be. So I'm sorry, I have to be done, until you get better, we can't be together. We can't be friends while you're like this. You don't have to go at it alone, but I'm sorry, Laurel. I have to be done done." His voice broke. He hated that he had to do this to Laurel because she didn't deserve this. He didn't know if he was giving her a death sentence or if he was saving her with this, but he had to. There was no other card in the deck that he could pick up. This was the final card.

He turned away and wiped the tears away from his eyes, because just put himself on the line. He put Laurel on the line and he didn't love doing that. Going back to Sara and Quentin and Dinah who were also perplexed by Laurel was awkward and none of them exactly said anything. His heart panged to go after her and to hold her and tell her that she would be alright, that she could reach out for help as long as she was willing to accept it, but he couldn't. He had to make the words stick.

Laurel took to the elevator, getting far away from apartment 305, and she just cried. Alone in her elevator. Lost everything yet again. She didn't know what the hell to do. Oliver said something. She needed to let everyone go. She coughed, she was crying so hard, but once it over, she took a breathe and for the first time, it felt like he could breathe. Oliver and Sara, their deaths, she hadn't grieved them in years. There was part of her that wanted to bury it deep inside of her and not admit to Oliver that he was right. There was also another part of her that wanted to make him so proud. More than anything, Oliver was the only constant in her life, good bad, they were always going to be in each other's life.


End file.
